The Ballad of Blessings and Curses
by bluedragon03
Summary: Crack fic, based on Tumblr users eerna and leopah's arts about what if Hiyori got to keep her Ayakashi form from the end of the hospital arc as a Shounen(tm) style powerup for later.


"Yato!" Hiyori cried as a phantom swatted him out of the air. He plummeted out of her line of sight, fall obscured by a skyscraper. Behind her back, Bishamon was also fighting the storm; but the two of them were quickly being overwhelmed by the sheer number of phantoms infesting this neighborhood.

She couldn't help like this, any contact with a phantom would cause her damage the way she was now, but they needed all hands on deck. Bishamon didn't know about her _ability _yet, but it seemed she was about to find out. Hiyori took two steps backward out of the street and dropped her body, then took a deep bracing breath before stomping down on her tail as hard as she could.

Hiyori cried out in pain as fire and agony tore through her phantasmal form, originating from the place where her tail was squashed between her shoe and the pavement and spreading outwards. Vaguely she heard Bishamon call out her name in concern, but then her vision shifted as one of her eyes bulged, turning pink and bulbous, coloring her vision slightly pink. As she readjusted to this form she swished her ragged tail experimentally, sighing when the excruciating feeling of transforming faded into something more easily ignored.

"Hiyori?" Bishamon shouted in alarm. Hiyori lifted a hand and smiled to ease Bishamon's mind before she remembered that in this form she had a set of rather threatening fangs and that revealing them probably wasn't comforting Bishamon.

By way of explanation, Hiyori leaped into the air and ripped apart the first phantom she came across with her claws.

"Kazuma, Hiyori has been- been- well I don't know what's happened!" Bishamon shouted, fixated on Hiyori, face awash with horror. She was so fixated on Hiyori she didn't see the phantom coming up on her six.

Hiyori lunged for the twelve legged monster that looked like something from her worst childhood nightmares, fangs bared and claws extended. Bishamon, a woman of acting first and thinking second, fired. The bullet struck Hiyori right before she sailed over Bishamon's shoulder and shredded the beast that had been an instant from sinking its fangs into the war god.

Hiyori crashed to the ground, screaming in pain and clutching her side where the bullet hit. Thankfully it didn't seem to have severed anything important.

"Why did you shoot me?" Hiyori shouted, grimacing as she looked at her wound. Bishamon looked in confusion between Hiyori's lucid expression and the disappearing remnants of the phantom that had been about to attack her.

"I-I thought-"

"Hiyori?" Yato cried, landing on the roof and running to her side, looking horrified. "What happened?"

"Bishamon _shot _me!" She exclaimed, still not quite able to believe it herself. Yato rounded on Bishamon, halfway between livid and disbelieving.

"Why the hell would you shoot _Hiyori_? She's our friend! She invited you to our flower viewing party!"

"She's- look at her!"

"I see her! She's been shot!"

"She's an ayakashi!" Kazuma put it, the pink earring glinting.

"Yeah, we know," Yukine interjected, "she can do that now."

"Since when?"

"Look out!" Hiyori shouted, lunging past Yato and grabbing a long slithering monster that had been heading right towards him. She dug her claws into its flesh to hold it still and ripped a huge hunk of it out with her teeth.

"Ugh, that's _foul_," Hiyori spat as the monster disappeared in her hands.

"Ha! That's what you get! You're _feral_!" Yato laughed.

"You're _welcome_."

"What did it taste like?" Yukine asked.

"Like how Yato smells." Yukine guffawed.

Bishamon watched the scene unfold disbelievingly. After a few more bickering exchanges Yato removed his ratty scarf and wrapped it tightly around Hiyori's waist to stem the bleeding.

"Nothing to do for it just now. If only someone here _thought _before they pulled the trigger," he shot at her.

"Sorry. I thought she'd turned into a phantom. Well, in mind _and _body. Sorry." Hiyori sighed but waved away the apology.

"It's fine. We're a bit busy here, don't you think?"

With that out of the way, the two gods and one slightly more than half-phantom leaped in three different directions. Bishamon using the myriad of weapons at her disposal to dispatch phantoms while Yato slashed and hacked and slashed some more. Every so often Hiyori would fly into her field of vision, ripping, tearing, and shredding phantoms with her bare hands and teeth. Yato was right about one thing. She was _feral. _

Hiyori leaped onto the back of an ayakashi the side of a house and dug her long jagged claws into its hide. It squealed in pain and she dug her teeth in, ripping and tearing. Just as she was thinking this strategy would never work the beast started kicking and bucking, forcing Hiyori to cling to its back for dear life.

"Yato!" She shrieked. She could already hear him scolding her in her mind _don't bite off more than you can chew!_

"Rend!" The ayakashi died in an explosion of light and something slammed into her chest. Seconds later Yato was setting her gently down on a roof. He gave her a stern look that she interpreted to mean 'don't bite off more than you can chew' before he leaped away.

Hiyori took a moment to take in their surroundings and was surprised to see that the three of them had nearly cleared out the area. An hour more at most and the place would be back to normal. A few more seconds of observation showed her her next target.

It was a phantom larger than Yato would like her to take on, but she'd show him. She looked around for inspiration and once again found it from her savior Tono-sama. The powerlines looked remarkably like the ropes on the outside of a wrestling ring. Hiyori backed to the opposite edge of the roof and got a running start, throwing herself at the powerlines. She hit them hard, but once they stretched to their limit they flung her back in the direction she wanted to go faster than she could have jumped herself.

Hiyori held her hands out in front of her and grabbed the giant stingray by the gills (why did it have gills anyway) and ripped as hard as she could, her forward velocity dragging her and the stingray with her. With an almighty shriek, the phantom was ripped in half and died in an explosion of light. She did a flip before she landed on one knee on a nearby roof, just to show off, then smiled smugly at Yato as he gaped at her.

"More than I can chew," she scoffed to herself.

Not long later the three congregated on the roof of a small apartment building, no ayakashi in sight.

"You certainly fight well in that form, Hiyori," Bishamon said. "Kazuma."

"Yukine."

The two boys appeared in human form beside them. Kazuma had his chin in his hand, surveying Hiyori while Yukine fished around in his jacket pocket until he pulled out the dreaded spray bottle. He gave it a quick shake and nodded in approval.

"Good, I remembered to refill it after last time."

"What do you have there, Yukine?" Kazuma asked. Yukine passed the bottle to Yato, whose eyes had taken on a mild sadistic glow.

"It's a spray bottle of purified water." Before Kazuma had the chance to ask what the bottle of purified water was for Yato sprayed Hiyori in the face and she hissed in pain. "It's for Hiyori," Yukine added uselessly.

"Ouch! Ow! OW!" Hiyori complained as Yato sprayed her down from head to tow.

"You're the one who decided to use your phantom form to fight."

"Why?" Was all Kazuma could manage as he watched Yato misting Hiyori like a tropical plant.

"She can't reenter her body until she'd been purified," Yato replied simply.

Hiyori continued to shout and complain, her voice singing a ballad of pain and annoyance against the relative quiet of the city.

"I love this song," Yato said.

***I'm pretty sure powerlines don't do That, but it felt really Shounen(tm) I was already doing the Shounen(tm) power up thing so I thought why the hell not.**


End file.
